Its surprising how close it still is, considering how much more dominant Federer is than Sampras. Sampras really slowed down after '97, I'm sure most thought he would finish with more than 14.

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Partly, it appears close because of Sampras' early USO win in 1990. He didn't win a GS for a while after that.

And partly, it appears close if you look at the tournaments won. In terms of the quality of tournaments won, Federer has an advantage though: 13 Masters Series over 7. The rankings points graph clearly shows how far Federer is relative to his peers, compared to how far Sampras was relative to his peers.

But you're right, it is still very close. In terms of what really, really matters, the only difference between them at this point is 1 Grand Slam.

Its surprising how close it still is, considering how much more dominant Federer is than Sampras. Sampras really slowed down after '97, I'm sure most thought he would finish with more than 14.

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It was not that long ago we saw ESPN polls asking how many Slams would Sampras finish with ..... most folks were projecting 16-18 some 20. Pete slowed down as he became more of a pure S&V player in the 2nd half/end of his career (post Gully). I've often wondered if that change resulted from his anemia disorder & conditioning? He had injuries to deal with plus retired early but at the time with his marriage to Bridget, breaking the Slam record, losing a step or so, the decision to retire seemed right. For the next couple of years there was a vacuum of sorts until Fed filled it going on his amazing run. Back to back (almost) of two tennis legends .... who would have thought of the chances? It's a shame they were not born closer ... the Asian exo will give us a tease of what we all missed (save for 2001) .... can't wait for November.

Its surprising how close it still is, considering how much more dominant Federer is than Sampras. Sampras really slowed down after '97, I'm sure most thought he would finish with more than 14.

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Sampras was much earlier at the top than Federer. He won a slam in 1990 and ended the year in the top 5. Federer barely ended in the top 30 and needed until 2002 to reach the top 10. It's basically a race between someone who came out of the blocks fast (Sampras) and someone who started slowly (Federer).

Federer has caught up with Sampras now. Sampras ended his peak with Wimbledon 1997. He won only 1 of the next 7 grand slam tournaments. This is Federer's chance to pull away from Sampras in this race.

Closer than I expected. Sampras has a better carpet winning percentage, a slightly better hard court winning percentage, and a much better 5 set record. Overall, Federer has been a bit more dominant, but not by as much as I thought. They were about equally dominant at Slams, and Sampras had won 2 Davis Cups at that age compared to 0 for Fed.

In terms of slam count it's close so far 11 vs. 10. However Federer has been in 9 slam finals in a row, winning 7 with two 3 in a row batches. The best Sampras managed was 3 slam finals in a row. So yeah the count is almost the same but Federer locked down the slam events far more effectively than Sampras so I'd say Federer is a lot more dominate.

Carpet has been phased out by the atp, so its not really a relevant comparison.

I thought Fed's comments after Wimbledon put these 'numbers' games into perspective, and how you can never predict the future(like those that thought Sampras would breeze to 14 slams after '97)

"Pete Sampras is maybe the greatest player we've ever had. So to come out and break his record, it's not the easiest thing, I know that. It takes me five Wimbledons and three Australian Opens and three US Opens to just get close to him. So it just shows you what a great player he was.
I don't know how much longer I can keep it up, you know, but I definitely feel like I'm mentally and physically still fit to go on for many more years to come. But that's not going to make you win trophies. You've got to put yourself -- give yourself occasions and possibilities.
That's what I've been able to do. I'd love to equal his record, let's put it that way first. To be on the same level as Pete Sampras, my former hero in a way, is already very nice, but I'm not there yet."